What Are the Best Baseball Sites? [2010 Update]

This article was first published on Feburary 17, 2009. Early in this year’s new baseball season, I bring it to you again. I have added a couple of sites to the original list (denoted in brackets). I have also, sadly, removed one good site that died. RIP From Small Ball to the Long Ball.

Another baseball season is finally upon us! I follow baseball with a passion that borders on addiction. Well, perhaps it’s beyond the border. The internet is a great place to get information. I have compiled a list of some of my favorite baseball sites.

Watch/listen on your computer

MLB.com, of course, is the official site of Major League Baseball. In addition to news, standings, etc, MLB.com is home to MLB.tv and MLB Audio. For $100 (or $120 for premium content) you can watch any game on your computer (subject to blackout restrictions) all season long. For $19.95, you can listen to the audio feed of any game (not subject to blackout). This is a nice, cheap option for following out of market teams.

Rumors?

MLBTradeRumors is a nonstop source of rumors about trades and free agent signings. Updates occur multiple times during the day, hitting a frantic pace at the trade deadline. The guy who runs the site scours multitudes of other sources in an effort to compile every rumor.

What about my team?

SportsBlog Nation is a compilation of blogs from every major sport. The folks who run each blog keep up to date on every aspect of the team and pass the knowledge on to you. In addition to covering the major league team, they also keep you up to date on all of the minor league teams in your organization. The fan interaction is also a great feature. Game threads – in which fans are commenting on game action as it occurs – is pretty cool.

Minors details

Renowned minor league analyst John Sickels runs Minorleagueball.com. John is one of the most knowledgeable minor league experts in the country. He publishes a book on prospects every year, but he also gives out an incredible amount of free information on his site.

You can find player salary information in several places, but COT’s Baseball Contracts keeps tracks of all the nitty gritty details – such as incentives and service time (helpful for determining when players will be eligible for arbitration or free agency).

Give me the data

baseball-reference.com is the best place I have found for baseball statistics. It tends to allow you to delve a bit more deeply into the numbers. In addition to tons of great content, BR’s premium “PI” service allows you to do some really deep searching. You can subscribe to PI for very short time periods (as low as $2.00 for 24 hours) so you don’t necessarily need to pay the $29 annual fee for a short research project.

Fangraphs goes into a lot of depth in their statistics. Considering the name, it should come as no surprise that they also have graphs on the site. The graphs show how player performance has differed from year to year, while also comparing the performance to the MLB average for those statistics.

Give me the database

The Lahman Database is a free (donations accepted) compilation of statistics for every player from 1871-present. MS Access, SQL, and CSV formats available.

More, more, more!

The College Baseball Blog, not surprisingly, follows the college game [2010 new addition to my list]. NCAA baseball gets a lots less attention than its football and basketball cousin, in large part because much of the elite talent is drafted out of high school and come up through the minor league ranks. As such, you typically have to hunt for good information. This site is a great one-stop shop for college ball.

Summer Ball covers collegiate players, with a specific focus on the collegiate summer leagues. The summer leagues use wood bats instead of the aluminum bats used in NCAA games. If a player performs well in a summer league, it can often boost their stock in the draft, since the adjustment to wood can be a problem for some players.

MLB’s Collective Bargaining Agreement can be downloaded in PDF format. I actually have a printed copy of the CBA which I keep in a binder. I wouldn’t say that it is a page turner, but it is great for settling arguments.

Your assignment

What sites have I missed? Specifically, I’m looking for sites that have some sort of unique data that you can find at others sites. Leave a comment with sites that you think should have been included.

Hmm. I hit a few blogs, all Phillies oriented, but nothing unique. I find that the best source is the website for the paper where the teams’ beatwriters work, as they tend to get the best info.
.-= Evan @ 40Tech´s last blog ..What’s On My iPhone — Part 3 =-.Total Comments by Evan @ 40Tech: 104

Writers for The Soap Boxers are freelance writers who work as independent contractors. Opinions expressed by the writers may not necessarily reflect the opinion of management.

Copyright for all content belongs to the writer identified in the byline. Copyright for any content not associated with a particular writer belongs to Kosmo. Copyright for comments belongs to the writer of the comment.

Content from The Soap Boxers cannot be reused in any manner other than what is allowed under the fair use doctrine of US copyright law or the applicable copyright laws of your country.